


Snowstorm

by Chrome



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Translated from Japanese, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-15 22:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14799086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrome/pseuds/Chrome
Summary: A chat between Viktor and a child in his skating class.The child is an original character.The story is set after episode 12.[This is translated from the original Japanese.]





	Snowstorm

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [吹雪](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14763170) by [joro2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joro2/pseuds/joro2). 



> Originally posted on pixiv and cross-posted to AO3.

"Thank you for today," the employee called to Viktor, who was returning from the skating rink. He had come to a skating class for children at a rink he didn't normally visit, because they had requested he visit for just one day of the off-season. Until recently, there was the far-away echo of children's voices, and now the adults were left to clean up.

"Teaching children to skate was a new experience. It was fun for me, too," Viktor said, laughing. He had gained a lot of things from spending every day as Yuuri's coach the previous season, one of them being a love of skating. He had begun to remember the feeling of just loving skating and sliding on the ice. He thought it would probably be good to try going to a skating class, so during this break he had decided to fill their request.

The gathering for today's class had been children who were truly beginners. He had heard that they had come to the city from various parts of the country. Viktor and the skating rink's instructor had watched them together. From the children who could skate a little bit to the ones who were standing on the ice for the first time, cheering them on was dazzling.

"Umm, Viktor-senshuu," came a voice from Viktor's feet. A child with light brown hair cut short was aiming their grey eyes at Viktor. They began to take a cell phone from their pocket and shyly offered it to Viktor. "Would you please take a photo with me?"

Viktor smiled at the child speaking in a nervous voice. "Sure! You were on the rink earlier and stayed behind, right?" 

Their cheeks flushed, and they averted their gaze. When the skating class ending, Viktor had obliged many children on the rink who wanted photos. The children who lagged behind after the promised time were supposed to have been hurried to the locker room by adults, but this one seemed to have secretly remained in the rink. 

Viktor accepted the phone from them and aimed the camera lens. He crouched next to the child and smiled, and after saying so, took the picture. The click of the shutter sounded in the quiet skating rink.

Looking at the photo they had taken, the child thanked him and asked him a skating question. When the child asked, _How do I jump like you?_ , Viktor replied with a smile. While they were talking, the staff member came and said it had gotten late, showing him the clock. 

"Wow, that time already? Thank you for telling me." When Viktor tried to stand up, the child grabbed his shirt. When Viktor looked at them, they cast their eyes down. Viktor looked at the child for a while, then turned back to the staff member and smiled. 

"Sorry, can you give us a minute?"

The staff member made a troubled face, but nodded and left.

When Viktor asked, "What's wrong?" the child stopped talking and stared at the floor silently. Just when it seemed there was no use and Viktor began to think of going home, they spoke in a small voice.

"I saw a video of you in the past. Even though you're a man, your hair was long."

That was a question Viktor had heard frequently in the past, from reporters and fans and many people. But it seemed in that moment that rather than ridiculing or condemning Viktor, the child's voice seemed weak and afraid.

"It was for expression in skating," Viktor replied blandly as the child continued to listen.

"Do you want to be a woman?" When Viktor was silent, the child spoke in an even smaller voice. "Even though I think I'm a girl, everyone else says I'm a boy."

"You?"

"Yes." The child let out a small sigh. "I think I like boys. But it's only girls who like boys. So I must be a girl," they said in a voice like a whisper. "That's why it's not strange. Because boys don't like boys, right?"

Viktor was quiet, then opened his mouth. "Listen carefully. Whatever you are, that's okay. There's not something that's strange. Whoever you like, it doesn't matter. Whether you're a boy or a girl, it's okay."

"That's a lie."

"It's true."

"But my father--" the child shouted, then hastily shut their mouth. Hearing the child's voice from a little ways away, the instructor hurried over with a strange expression. Lifting his head up, Viktor smiled at the instructor, then looked back at the child. Because of the tears in their eyes, their angry expression was distorted. Holding back tears of anger and confusion, the child looked down for a while, then abruptly pulled back, turned and fled.

**Author's Note:**

> [[Translator's notes:
> 
> Thank you to joro2 for allowing me to translate this! My Japanese is...eternally a struggle, but I've done my best to capture both the spirit and the letter of the story.
> 
> A few notes on a couple of the translation choices I made:  
> -"senshuu" is a suffix denoting "player" or "athlete"; it doesn't really have a corresponding title in English, so I preserved the Japanese.  
> -I refer to the child in this story with they/them pronouns. Japanese writing almost never uses pronouns, so the child's gender is ambiguous in the original story until they bring it up and use a masculine form of "I". It was difficult to avoid using pronouns in English, so I used they/them to preserve that ambiguity.
> 
> I'm [catalists](https://catalists.tumblr.com) on Tumblr.]]


End file.
